Exploiting fugitive resources: How long-lived is "fugitive"? Fallen trees are a long-lasting reward for Ips typographus (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae)

Marceau Louis, Jean-Claude Grégoire and Pierre-François Pelisson

ULB Institutional Repository from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract: Because of their significant impact on forests, tree-killing bark beetles have been widely studied at epidemic population densities. However, bark-beetle outbreaks emerge from populations at low, endemic levels, where population maintenance and growth depend on scarce, ephemeral resources such as lightning-struck trees, weakened and suppressed standing trees or wind-felled trees, depending on the species. The longevity of these resources strongly influences population dynamics, but very little is known in this respect.We tested the hypothesis that the driving factor reducing the availability of fallen trees is the decrease of their nutritional quality. We analysed the qualitative changes of the phloem of spruces artificially uprooted at different times (2-17. month before the experiment started) and simultaneously exposed during the same flight season to attacks of the major forest pest in Eurasia, Ips typographus. We also measured the impact of resources' decay on the insects' fecundity and the quality of their offspring.Our results show a surprisingly slow decrease of phloem quality over time. The beetles could develop on the oldest (17. month-old) resources with no significant differences in terms of fecundity, progeny body mass and global energy acquisition.Although they retain their nutritional quality over long periods, transient resources are exposed to other factors that make them rapidly unsuitable for I. typographus. We suggest that interspecific competition is probably the most influential of them, and acts as a major driver in the beetles' race for new resources. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords: Bark beetle ecology; Endemic populations; Ephemeral resources; Ips typographus; Population dynamics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-11
Note: SCOPUS: ar.j
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in: Forest ecology and management (2014) v.331,p.129-134

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/187662

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://hdl.handle.ne ... lb.ac.be:2013/187662

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ULB Institutional Repository from ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Benoit Pauwels ().